Tuesday, 7 July 2009

"I don't have anything against Jesus, but I don't like his fan club very much"

While Ava’s head grew at a normal rate, Mato said, because the body was so desperate to protect her brain, the rest of her body steadily wasted away: “She stopped growing. That is not an overnight event. That takes months … Her growth reflects there was a chronic problem.”

Not a fatal one, however, for your average, God-fearing parent. Just a signal to go see a doctor, and gently place your child in the hands of someone who understands that bacteria and disease aren’t tests of faith, but the inconveniences of life in a fallen world.

Unfortunately, the Worthingtons’ faith and the Worthingtons’ church shun those interventions. “I don’t believe in (doctors),” Ava’s father told detectives in Clackamas County’s child-abuse unit. Medical treatment “is not a question. It’s not even thought.”

Quotes

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. -H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Scars

We who have lost have no physical sign, no outward scar that says, 'Look, oh look, can you not see? I have lost so much.' The scars are inside. Our drug-riddled, ill, tattooed or emaciated [or obese*] bodies become our scars; our ineptitude at completing goals or overcoming addictions, our tendency to sit in support groups or slice at our skin or fail at life - these are our ways of showing our loss.
-- Ingrid Poulson, "Rise"
* my addition